Black phosphorus based saturable absorber for Nd-ion doped pulsed solid state laser operation

Abstract

In this paper, the use of black phosphorus (BP) as a saturable absorber in a Q-switched Nd-ion doped solid state laser is presented. Few layers of BP in isopropyl alcohol are obtained by liquid phase exfoliation. The BP nanosheets with thicknesses in the range of 15–20 nm are deposited onto a K9 glass substrate. By inserting the BP nanosheets into a diode pumped Nd-ion doped solid state laser, stable Q-switched lasing at 0.9, 1.06, 1.3 μm is obtained. Using this approach, we have achieved a short pulse duration down to 219 ns, a high pulse energy of up to 6.5 μJ, and the corresponding peak power of 30 W. Our results show that the BP saturable absorber functions well in a Nd-ion doped solid state laser for pulsed laser generation.